Chapter on the Interval Between the Two Trumpet Blasts and the Coccyx (Ajb al-Dhanab)

in an unspecified, general sense. However, it has been narrated with explicit clarification in transmissions other than Abu Hurayrah's in sources other than Muslim as: "forty years." The term: "('ajb al-dhanab)" is with fat-hah on 'ayn and sukun on jim; it is the tiny, indestructible bone situated at the very base of the spine, representing the tip of the coccyx. It is also called "'ajam" with mim. It is the very first part of a human being to be created in the womb, and it is the part that remains permanently preserved so that the creation will be reconstructed upon it on the Day of Resurrection. The Prophet's (ﷺ) statement: "(The earth will consume every part of the son of Adam except the coccyx ['ajb al-dhanab])" - this is a general statement subject to specific exception (makhsus), from which the Prophets (salawatullahi wa salamuhu 'alayhim) are uniquely exempted, for Allah has strictly forbidden the earth from consuming the bodies of the Prophets, as explicitly stated in the authentic hadith.